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Monday, July 2, 2012

Whiskey

Whiskey came to us a couple of years ago from South San Jose in California after nearly losing his life after what was a preventable accident. At t he time, he was a stallion and these rodeo people put him in with two large stallions and a mare next to the pen came in season. The natural reactions of stallions is to eliminate the competition and because Whiskey is a miniature horse, he got the brunt end of the elimination process which nearly cost him his life. The larger stallions had ripped open his back from one hip to the other all the way to the bone. The owners at the time did not consult a vet. They took it upon themselves to doctor his wounds. They doctored his wounds by taking unsterile table scissors and cut the loose flesh off with no anesthesia. There was a Animal Control report made at the time. The lady that originally sold Whiskey to these people heard about it and bought him back from them. She was so devastated over the fact that she had sold him to these people and they were sooo cruel to him that she was emotionally all over the place. When she turned him over to us, she asked that he remain in the sanctuary the rest of his life were he would be safe. It took Whiskey's back five months to heal. He's got a nasty scar on his back that grows hair lightly in the winter and he looses it in the summer. He does show some signs of nerve damage as a result. From time to time, he drags his hind leg (sometimes both) like his hips/legs go to sleep on him. We have watched for signs of pain but we have not seen any. Whiskey was gelded shortly after we got him. The vet at UC Davis told us that it was a good thing we were gelding him because it would save his life.